Et tu, Bannon?
He is a disgusting individual, but he’s got his nose right up on the white nationalist underbelly and knows he is smelling some doubt. He has gauged the long-term ability of his followers to entirely deny reality and found it is beginning to soften.
With respect to Mueller’s investigation, the truest thing Bannon was quoted as saying in the article is that the Trumps are sitting on a beach, trying to stop a Category 5 hurricane. Bannon has no intention of getting swept away from his place on the national stage by sticking around on the beach with them. The futility of it will only become more apparent as more Trump associates enter pleas or are indicted. Bannon knows this, and he knows that as a result it will become almost impossible to keep his cadre of racists and thugs in denial of the truth and buying his special brand of hateful disruption.
It’s pretty smart, really. He used TrumpCo to gain national prominence and now feels he controls enough of the electorate that he can betray the Trumps in order to further his quest to break the government.
But Bannon is never as clever as he himself thinks he is.
With the above, he’s all but saying to Trump, “See, you moron? If you’d have listened to me, we could have pulled it off without anyone ever finding out!”
So who’s the traitor, again?
It will be interesting to see how Teh Base™ reacts, and which candidate behind whom they will next throw their weight. Also how they treat their White House hero going forward.
That is, assuming Bannon doesn’t himself have a place in Mueller’s clean-up on Aisle 1600. I’m skeptical that Bannon is going to avoid scrutiny and/or consequences, due to his connections with Cambridge Analytica and Rebekah Mercer. I don’t think he has yet spoken to Mueller, and the first time he does, it may be in handcuffs.
On the bright side for the rest of us, it should take some of the heat off Mueller and turn the unhinged rage of Teh Base™ more toward the poseurs in Congress and the Oval Office. It will further splinter the Republican brand – whatever the hell that is, nowadays – and render them even more ineffectual in the election ahead. I’ll take good news wherever I can find it for now.